Food supporting rack for refrigerator drawers



Aug. 5, 1947. i e. L. c. EARLE I 2,425,232

FOOD SUPPORTING RACK FOR REFRIGERATOR DRAWERS Original Filed March 6, 1944 mmvroa 60m! 65421.5

Arm/ms) Patented Aug.5,1947 Q I 2 425 232 ,iiNi'iED PATENT QFFICE' FQQD SWPORTWG RACK FOR REFRIG- ERATGR BRAWERS Guyon L. C. Earle, Forest Hills, N. Y... assignor, by direct and mesne assignments, to Hugh 8. Wertz, as trustee Qriginai application March 8, 19%, Serial No. 525,145. Divided and this application Septem= her 25, 194%, Serial No. 555.3706

a claims. (oi. 62-89) E 2 This invention relates to refrigerators and The invention will be more readily understood more specifically to refrigerator drawer strucby referring to the following description taken in tures. This application is a division of appliceconnection with the accompanying drawing rugations preferably running parallel to the 45 frigerator 10.

tion Serial No. 525,146, filed March 6, race. I forming a part thereof, in which:

It is an object of this inventionto provide novel 5 Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a refrigerator means-for supporting'food in refrigerators havemploying one or more drawers in accordance ing drawers. with the invention;

Patent 2,312,326, issued March 2, 1943, to Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a drawer in ac- Guyon L. C. Earle discloses a refrigerator of the cordance with the invention; set-back type. This refrigerator comprises 9. l Fig. 3 is a topview of the drawer of Fig. 2 car lower refrigerated portion containing a plurality rying three food containers;

of drawers, an upper refrigerated portion the Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the front plane of which is set-back or placed to line 4-4 of Fig.3;v

the rear of the front. plane of the lower refrig- Fig. 5 is a side view, partly in cross section, of erated portion, and a table-top member located the drawer of Fig.2; 4 above the lower portion and in front of the up- Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the rack for holdper portion of the refrigerator. An evaporator ing the food containers; and is preferably located in the upper portion and- Fig. ,7 is a side view of amodification of the this sets up a fairly rapid circulation of cold air drawer of Fig. 5. in the rear of the lower portion behind the 0 Referring more particularly to the drawings, drawers. By deflecting or other means a slower, Fig. 1 shows, by way of example for illustrative substantially horizontal circulation of cold air is purposes, a refrigerator In of the set-back" type set up in each ofthe drawers in, the lower porprovided with a plurality of drawers, one or more tion. By this means a. very uniform degree of ofwhich are in accordance with the invention. cold can be obtained throughout all parts of the 5 While the invention will be described in connecrefrigerator, if desired. tion with a "set-back refrigerator, it is to be un- Some of the refrigerator drawers are utilized derstood that certain features of the refrigerator to carry bottles of milk, beer. cola drinks, etc., drawer of this invention can be. utilized in other and it occasionally happens that liquid from a types of refrigerators. I bottle is spilled into the drawer. Moreover, de- The refrigerator I0 comprises an insulated upfrosting water might get into one of the drawers. per refrigerated portion ii, an insulated lower If the drawer has a firmly attached, smooth bot refrigerated portion l2, both portions being suptom, when the drawer is opened the liquid flows ported by 'a recessed "base l3, and a table-top to the back and when it is closed it flows towards member M of any suitable material, such as, for the front, thus splashing the liquid over articles example, porcelain, linoleum, stainless steel or placed in the drawer or splashing out into other Monel metal. The upper portion ll contains an drawers. evaporator It the coils of which are adjacent or It is another object of this invention to provide surround one or more ice cube trays or food cona, refrigerator drawer structure which does not tainers such as the trays Or containers l6, H and have the above-mentioned disadvantages. 40 I8. Theupper portion also contains mesh shelves The above and other objects are attained in ac- I9, '20 and 2|, the.upper two of which may have cordance with this invention by providing as an cut-out portions so thattall bottles can be acillustrative embodiment thereof a refrigerator commodated. Doors 22 and 23 are provided as drawer which has a corrugated bottom, the corclosure members for the upper portion of the refront of the drawer, and by providing a rack, sup- The lower portion l2 comprises a suitable ported from the drawer frame, which holds up a framework and a plurality of drawers, such as one or more food containers in such a'manner the drawers 24,- 25, 26 and 21. The drawer 25 that cold air is free to circulate around and unh be n Sh wn part y Open in Fig. 1 to indider each of them and so that liquid on the cate the internal details thereof but these details drawer bottom does not splash on them. The are more clearly shown in the other figures so drawer bottom is preferably removable so that reference is now made to them. At least one it can be cleaned readily. The rack and food conof the drawers of the refrigerator I0 embodies one tainers are also removable. The drawer bottom or more of the features shown in Figs. 2 to 7, has one or more finger or hand holes therein to inclusive. permit it to be easily lifted out of the drawer. Fig. 2 shows in perspective the refrigerator In a modification, the drawer bottom does not drawer 25 having an insulated drawer front 30, I extend under the food containers, thus making sides 3| and 32, back 33, a bottom 34 (preferably possible better cold air circulation in and among but not necessarily removable), a rack 35 supthe drawers. ported from the sides 3| and 32, and one or more food containers 36 supported from the rack. The bottom 34, which is also shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5, is made of any suitable material, such as corrugated aluminum, the corrugations preferably running parallel to the front of the drawer so that any liquid spilled in the drawer'will not flow from back to front, and vice versa, when the drawer is opened and closed. The corrugations also serve to stiffen the bottom as do the front and rear edges 31 and 33 thereof which are bent or otherwise formed into channel members. The bottom rests on theflanges 39 and 40 projectin inwardly from the front 30 and the rear 33, respectively, of the drawer and/or 4| and 42 projecting inwardly from the sides 3| and 32, respectively (see Fig. 4). If desired, metal strips extending between the sides or between the front and back can be used instead of the flanges to support the bottom. The sides 3| and 32 can be inclined downwardly at the back to provide runners 50 and SI, respectively, which slidably engage slides 52 and 53, respectively, when the drawer is being moved. These slides are supported from the interior walls of the refrigerator or are on mullions between the drawer and have downwardly inclined portions at the rear thereof to correspond to the runners i and By this means, the drawers are held by gravity in the closed position, it requiring some little pull to open them. If desired, the runners may be located on the bottom of the drawer between the sides and the slides placed under the runners.

In order to remove the bottom 34 to clean it, one or more formed finger holds 43 are provided. The finger hold is preferably long enough to accommodate all the fingers of the hand and the lower edges thereof are turned outwardly so that there are no rough edges to cut the fingers. The upper surface of the finger hold is at least as high as the upper edges of the corrugations of the bottom 34 so that no liquid is spilled through the aperture of the finger hold. As shown in Fig. '7, the bottom 34 need not extend the entire distance between the front and back of the drawer. In this arrangement the bottom is supported in the front, by way of I example, from a supporting strip '54 fastened to the sides. 7 In order to support food containers above the bottom 34 them from any liquid on the bottom and of facilitating the free circulation of cold air around them, the rack 35 is.provided in accordance with this invention. This rack metal formed as shown in Fig. 6 to have flanges 44 and 45 which fit over the sides 3| and 32 and flanges l6 and 41 which serve to support one or more food containers 36. In Figs. 3 and 4, three food containers 38 have been shown supported from the rack member 35. Each food container has, if desired, a top 48 which has much of its surface indented except for handles 49 which are flush with the unindented part of the .top surface. The containers 38 are preferably of clear plastic and are separated from each other and from the is, for example, of,

on the flanges is permitted. Moreover, easy cleaning of the bottom is possible. Other advantages will be readily apparent. If the bottom is fastened to the sides, front, and back, the whole drawer is removed for cleaning purposes.

Although the present invention has been described in terms of a preferred illustrative embodiment, it should be realized that the invention and it several features are susceptible of embodiment in a wide variety of other forms, hence the invention is to be understood as comprehending such other forms as may fairly come within the spirit and letter of the appended claims,

What is claimed is:

1. A refrigerator drawer structure comprising a back, two sides, an insulated front, a corrugated bottom, said bottom being shorter than the distance between said front and back so that air may flowin and out of' said drawer, a rack supported from said sides, and at least one food container supported from said rack, said rack being over the portion of the drawer which has no bottom.

2. A refrigerator drawer adapted to be used in a refrigerator wherein there is set up a substantially horizontal circulation of cold air through the drawer to uniformly refrigerate articles placed therein, comprising a drawer frame for the double purpose of separating o 05 front and side walls to permit the cold air from the evaporator to circulate around them. The containers 33 may be of various lengths and depths but the widths of all those containers designed for use with a single rack 35 should be equal.

By means of the drawer structure described above, circulation of "cold air within and between the drawers is unimpeded, splashing of liquid is prevented and economic use of available space .76 2,065,116

comprising a back, two sides, a bottom and an insulated front, a rack in the front part only of said drawer, said rack being supported by said frame, and at least one food container supported by said rack. V

3. A refrigerator drawer adapted to be used in a refrigerator wherein there is set up a substantially horizontal circulation of cold air through the drawer to uniformly refrigerate articles placed therein, comprising a drawer frame comprising a back, two sides, a bottom and an insulated front, a rack in the front part only of said drawer, said rack being supported by said frame, and at least one food container supported by said rack, said rack having a maximum horizontal dimension between its front and rear which is less than half the distance between the front and rear of the drawer.

4. A refrigerator drawer adapted to be used in arefrigerator wherein there is set up a substantially horizontal circulation of cold air through the drawer to uniformly refrigerate articles placed therein, comprising a drawer frame comprising a back, two sides, a bottom and an. insulated front, a rack in the front part only of said drawer, said rack being supported by said frame, and at least one food container supported by said rack, said rack comprising two parallel strips between the sides of the drawer for supporting the food container, which strips are separated by an open space extending almost the entire width of the drawer.

GUYON C.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PA'I'EN Number Name Date 2,006,442 Connors July 2, 1935 1,592,066 Barnes July 13, 1926 1,490,353 Wagemaker Apr. 15,- 1924 1,947,571 Prince Feb, 20, 1934 Constantine Dec. 22, 1936 

